by T R Tells
“I don’t, so forgive me if I’m not cordial. You and your “Captain” just barged into the home of the Forty Little Thieves.”
Again, the ugly man interrupted, and he erupted into a crackling noise that she assumed was his laugh. It made Thea flinch.
“The Forty Little Thieves?” He enunciated as if he was mocking their name. “You mean those group of punk nose kids? You see them cowering over in the corner.”
Thea did look and saw that each child had wide-eyed expressions of fear on their faces. Except for Maggie, who was watching Thea and Eddie with concern in her eyes. The look on Eddie’s face was something that made her stare at him for a moment. He had a purple bruise under his right eye, which made Thea believe that he had tried to fight the men to try to protect the others. But the look in his eyes was something profound that she couldn’t fathom. It was dark, angry and cold which terrified Thea more than anything.
“Karmen, will you shut up and let her go,” the voice of the captain made Thea jerk away from the darkness in Eddie’s eyes and focused on the scarred man. “Let the girl go and cool yourself off, take a walk.”
The ugly man said something inaudible before she felt all tension release from her head. She rubbed her scalp to ease the pain and cast a glare at him.
“Yeah, go take a walk, Karmen. Pretty sure that’s a girl’s name.” Laughter rang out in her head from two of the voices and she got the sense that the motherly voice was shaking its head.
“I wouldn’t get so flighty with your words now,” the captain said. He bent down to Thea’s height so he could look her in the eyes. “I’m going to make this short and sweet to catch you up to speed since you were out . . . which, by the way, will stop after today. You and your band of thieves’ work for me now.”
“Excuse me?” Thea said with a look of disgust on her face. “I work for no one, least of all some low-life pirate who doesn’t know anything from his ass to his hole.”
He slowly stood Thea’s eyes trailed up and saw a slow smirk form on his face. “And that potty mouth of yours needs to go, such a nasty habit for a little girl.”
“I’ll show you a nasty habit, asshole!”
“Wrong,” the man said. Thea watched as he lifted his hand and snapped his finger. Thea hadn’t seen someone coming from behind her as a fist slammed into her face. Her ears rung and black spots danced in her eyes. “As I said, watch your mouth. I am your new caretaker, Captain Flint. If you don’t want to meet that floor again, I suggest you learn to respect your elders.”
“Thea!” A shriek called out followed by the cries of several other children, but Thea couldn’t tell who it was over the ringing in her ears. She touched the side of her head as she pushed herself off the ground.
“Silence them!” Flint yelled with his brows coursed together. There weren’t any signs of the man from earlier. She faced the cynical look of the man in her vision.
“Now . . . Thea, was it?” Flint said as he walked over to her and looked down. He didn’t smile, just stared at her with piercing ebony eyes. Thea looked away, unable to stare up at him. “Oh, someone has lost their bravado I see.”
Thea pressed her lips together. Anything she said now she knew would not make a difference. Everyone was to take orders from Captain Flint and his crew.
Kill him. Use your powers and destroy him, the angry voice said.
I should never have left, Thea thought, feeling selfish and defeated.
You needed to go; you know that the motherly voice encouraged. Just push through this and look for a way to save the others, like Maggie. You can do this, you know it.
You can save the others by killing them, the angry voice snarled.
She doesn’t have enough control of her magic yet for that, and you know it. You’re asking her to expose herself and get herself killed, you fool! This was the first time Thea had ever heard the motherly voice yell, and that worried her.
“Answer dammit!” Flint yelled at her, grabbing her chin with his rough, scarred hands. Thea squeaked and kept her eyes tightly shut. She felt the tightening of Flint’s hands on her jaw, his fingernails digging underneath her chin. “Well, since you won’t talk on your own, I guess we’ll have to make you talk. Boys!”
Before Thea could snap her eyes open, Flint’s hands had left her chin. He stood just as she heard screams from where the children were. Thea swiftly turned her head and saw two men, one grabbing Maggie’s hair by his hand, and the other clutching her clothes.
“Maggie!” Thea cried out and stood up quickly. Despite her head feeling woozy from the fall, she struggled to keep her body afloat to protect Maggie.
Flint gripped her arm, tightly. No matter how hard Thea tried to tug out of his grip, it wouldn’t budge.
Thea suddenly felt her heart drop and she was aware of how loud her breathing sounded in her ears, her heart thumping in sync. She could hear nothing but her heart, pounding in terror.
Don’t let them see weakness, Thea, the angry voice snapped. Turn your pain into rage and focus that rage on them - when the moment’s right. Showing them your fear will only make things worse.
For once, I agree, the motherly voice whispered; which worried Thea even more, as the voices never decided on anything.
She turned around and saw the men trying to drag Maggie from the group, who’d shrunk in fear. Eddie, however, struggled to break from the men’s grip to help Maggie. While the rest of the children’s faces were scrunched up in terror, their mouths were open wide as if crying out. Eddie’s face remained the same dark-eyed look as before. He yelled at them, evidently telling them to help him, but Thea couldn’t make out the words. Thea watched as the men pushed and slapped Eddie around while they grinned, joyously mocking him, but that didn’t stop Eddie.
Don’t do anything stupid, one of the voices whispered to her. She couldn’t tell which one.
Thea saw that Eddie had a busted lip and blood was pouring from his forehead and cheek. He managed to break the hold one the men had on her. One of the men who had been holding Maggie’s clothing had ripped her sleeve, leaving her shoulder exposed.
Eddie went to the next man and brought his teeth down into his arms as he bit down. Thea couldn’t hear anything, but from the man’s strangled face and the blood seeping from where Eddie bit him.
Maggie froze, unable to move away while Eddie ripped his teeth into the man’s flesh. The moment Eddie let go of the man he spat a chunk of hairy skin from his mouth.
The man yelled at him, but Eddie only smiled at the man, blood dribbling down his chin. A metallic smell wafted up to Thea’s nostrils. His face was covered in blood and his eyes held a cold, dark look he’d worn since before Thea walked through the door. She understood now that the expression was of absolute hatred.
The look, however, did not last, as the second man that had been holding onto Maggie struck Eddie in the head with an odd object. Eddie’s face went rigid before he crashed to the floor, unconscious.
Thea watched the onslaught of terror that laid out in front of her like a nightmare. She felt woozy and dizzy, unable to call out to anyone. The tight feeling in her gut made her feel sick. She felt the constricting pain of regret. Had she been here, she might have stopped this or protected everyone.
Instead, she was off making a happy life for herself. Selfish. And now she was weak and powerless.
A loud bang broke through her fog, and Thea jumped from the noise. She looked up and saw that Flint hold the strange object in his hand that the other man had. It was long, and almost L-shaped, and it looked like dark metal. The shorter part looked to be made of wood and had a little circle right in the curve of the L. Flint held the shorter, wooden part. The extended portion had gray smoke streaming out of it. She assumed that was the source of the loud noise. She watched as he brought it to his lips and blew the smoke away before tucking the strange object into his pants.
“Well, that was some nice entertainment . . . Now that we’re all acquainted, it’s time to break in the new
rules,” Flint rubbed his hands together in sadistic glee.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Ah! Son of–That hurts, Thea.”
“Sorry, just hold still a little longer,” Thea told Eddie as she dabbed at his wounds with a cloth. She stitched the gaping wound above his eye with a wooden needle and thread. “There, good as new.”
Eddie nodded and touched the side of his head. “Thanks,” he mumbled and got off the bed. He didn’t say anything else to her, let alone look at her, and a churning, gut-wrenching pain in Thea’s stomach made her feel even more guilty about her decision to leave.
Before Eddie could leave out of the room, Freya came in. She tried to speak to him, but he immediately gave her the cold shoulder, causing Freya to jerk back as if he’d struck her.
Thea frowned and watched Freya walk over to the other side of the room where the rest of the children were. She, however, did stop and turn to look over at where Thea and Maggie sat. Thea was about to call her over to join them, but halted as she saw an odd look in Freya’s eye: regret? She thought before Freya turned away and sat with the other children.
“Thea?” Maggie said hesitantly, concern written all over her face. Thea wondered how Maggie managed to hold everything together, especially what had happened to her recently. Thea envied that.
“Don’t beat yourself too much, okay? It isn’t good for you.”
Thea shook her head. “But if I were just here . . . I could have, well, I could have—”
“Done nothing,” Maggie interrupted, as Thea looked at her and saw that her usually sweet face was replaced with a much more serious exterior. “Even if you were here, those men, those pirates, would have still taken over.”
Thea pressed her lips together. She didn’t feel entirely convinced. She couldn’t even tell Maggie that she recently thought about leaving everyone behind. The voice was right, Thea thought to herself morosely, I really can’t have it all.
“How did they even take over? Where are they from?”
“They said something about being from Hawold. I heard from some of them that they were trying to sell some of their wares here in Kingsland, but one of the other men, the one that was holding you—”
Thea scoffed and shook her head at the ugly man. “Yeah, Karmen.”
Maggie nodded, “Yeah, he was the first to find us. Then a whole lot of them came, followed by their captain. From there it was pretty much their place. Eddie tried the best that he could, but they overpowered him.”
Thea rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth. “Right, because we’re only children to them, and we can’t even tell a Kingsland guard. Otherwise, we’ll be arrested and possibly thrown in jail.”
“He’s not talking much to anyone, you know, after what happened,” Maggie said, she didn’t look at Thea this time, which made her believe she was referring to when they were trying to force her.
“Right . . . But they were afraid to Eddie should know that. They would have never put you in danger so blatantly but . . .” She wasn’t sure if she was on Eddie’s side or if she believed they could have all banded together and fought them off.
Suddenly, a thought came to Thea. She wondered if Jiran could help in some way. He had already offered to adopt her. Maybe throughout his travels, he could provide a permanent place to stay for the others in the places he visited. The thought intrigued her. She wasn’t even sure if it would work, but the idea of staying in a home with ruthless pirates was not an option.
“Maggie, come on,” Thea said, as she jumped up from her seat. “I think I might have an answer to our problems.”
“Huh?” Maggie questioned, but didn’t say anything more as she followed Thea toward the exit. Right when they were about to leave the bedroom, a man, almost as tall as the door, stood in front of them.
“Where do you two think you’re going?” When the man smiled, Thea could see his entire mouth was yellow with several holes in his teeth. It didn’t help that his odor flew in her face and made her want to wretch.
“What’s it to you, ass hat?” Thea spat at him. The man’s grin disappeared, and he reached out to grab Thea by her collar. He pulled her to his face so she could get a better whiff of his rancid body odor.
“What the hell did you just say to me, bitch?”
The other children gasped and watched on in horror, but none of them moved to help her.
“I’m pretty sure you heard me or is there dirt in your ear too?” Thea continued to taunt the man. She wasn’t sure where the bravado had come from, but she felt like it was the only thing she could do in this situation.
“What? That’s it,” the man yelled and gritted his teeth. He pulled back his arm and balled his hands into a tight fist ready to bring it down to Thea’s face. She closed her eyes and tried to brace herself -
“Enough!”
Thea snapped her eyes open just as the bad breath man released her collar. When she looked at the source of the voice, she sighed heavily to herself to see that it was the captain.
“Harden,” Captain Flint began, as he rested his hand on stinky mouth’s shoulder, a chilling grin on his face. “Why don’t you get some booze downstairs? I’ll take charge up here for the time being.”
“You sure, Captain?” Harden looked over at Thea’s way with a stone-eyed glared before looking back at Captain Flint. “This one’s got a bit of an attitude.”
When Thea turned to look at Flint, she couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down her spine. She watched as he closed his eyes and chuckled before slowly opening them, staring directly at Thea — the look in his eyes made her step back. She felt Maggie’s hand on her arm, gently tugging.
“Don’t worry, there are ways to break a dog.” The response was enough for Harden to nod and smirk at Thea before walking off, leaving them with the captain’s enigmatic aura. “Mind your own damn business, brats!” He shouted at the other children in the corner; they immediately turned away.
“Now,” Flint said, looking back down at Maggie and Thea, “Where in Eddis’ name were you two going?” He was somewhat amused and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for their answer.
Nevertheless, Thea could tell that he would drop the act at a moment’s notice if he needed to.
“We were just going to get some fresh air . . . sir,” Maggie immediately spoke. It surprised Flint as he curiously looked at her with a raise of his brow, before grinning at her.
“How cute . . . Well, I’m afraid girls aren’t allowed to leave, haven’t you noticed that only the boys were gone?”
Thea frowned and turned around to look in the corner where the others were, to see that Flint had been right: there were no boys there. She turned back around and faced Flint, whose amused grin had stayed on his face.
“Then where are they?”
“They’re working, stealing for me. You little girls will be doing other things. That’s the only advantage females have, though those boys will do the same thing after a while.”
“Then, why is Eddie still here?” Thea questioned him, though she wasn’t entirely sure what he planned for any of them, the apparent gleam in his eye as he spoke sent a shiver running down her spine.
“Oh, Edward yes, he’s been a tough one to crack; but I think I’m breaking him slowly.”
“What did you do to him!” She shouted at him and, without thinking, stepped closer to Flint, so their chests almost touched.
He looked down as he towered over her by a good two feet and grinned. Maggie felt the tension from where she stood and felt her throat tighten as she opened her mouth in hopes of stopping Thea from speaking further.
“Thea, stop. We shouldn’t—” Maggie was cut off by a raise of Flint’s hand.
“You’ve been a real cocky son of a bitch since I’ve met you. That not only interests me but irritates me.” The look on Flint’s face immediately darkened and a frown replaced his smirking face. He grabbed Thea by the arm and started to drag her out of the room.
“Thea!” Maggie
yelled out and grabbed her hand, but the minute that she pulled Thea, Flint sharply turned to look at her, sending daggers Maggie’s way.
“I suggest you let her hand go before you regret it.”
“M-Maggie,” Thea quickly spoke, she could see the uncertainty and fear in Maggie’s eyes, but she didn’t let Thea’s hand go. Thea wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt Maggie. “Just go, don’t worry about me, okay?”
Thea saw Maggie’s lip quiver and her eyes blur with tears, but she nodded in understanding and hesitantly released her grip on Thea’s hand.
“That’s a good little girl,” Flint said condescendingly. “Now get back in there with the others.” As Flint continued to pull Thea’s arm, as he dragged her away from her friends. Thea tried to pull away. She watched as Maggie stood there, frozen in terror, weeping silently.
***
“Get in there,” Flint said, shoving Thea toward a door.
Flint hadn’t dragged Thea far, just to another door that led to another set of bedrooms. She could see Flint locking the door behind, and she immediately backed away just as she heard someone call out for her.
“What the hell is Thea doing here?”
Eddie?
When Thea turned around, she saw Eddie, but the look on his face made her frown in worry. His cheeks were bloated and red; his hair disheveled; his eyes red — he’d been crying.
“You’re not the only one, Edward, who’s a bit hard-headed,” Flint replied. Thea watched as he stepped closer Eddie, he instantly took several steps backward and flinched. Flint chuckled and stretched out his hand reaching for Eddie’s cheeks, but Eddie quickly shook his hands off.
“Y-You told me if I . . . If I did what you wanted . . . You wouldn’t hurt any of the girls.”
“What?” Thea questioned, she looked from Eddie to Flint, who had his arms crossed over his chest and wore that sinister, bone-chilling, grin again. “W-What is he talking about?”